Image used with permission by: Rod Duchaineau [ICM]

It's hard to believe that we are near the end of another year here at Renderosity. What a year 2006 has been. Filled with so much change, growth, challenges, and success and breath taking works of art. Let's look at the past 365 days that have been filled with so much activity. Let's start with the reason so many of us come here...the art!

Every month artists from different galleries of the site are nominated to be the Artist of the Month. This can be such a difficult process as there are many fantastic artists here. Please click on the AOM 2006 link to find out how artists are nominated. Next week, we will announce the 2006 Artist of the Year as chosen from among these artists. We already see this is going to be a VERY hard decision to make as all the artists are extrodinarily talented. The Artists of the Month for 2006 are:

• January - Uwe Jarling [j-art].
• February - Stefan Morrell [stonemason]
• March - David Lloyd [Flak]
• April - Matthieu Roussel [Matthieu]
• May - Cornelia Heigele [Omotou]
• June - John Quertinmont [qmont]
• July - Jeff Hindmarsh [JAYBEEH]
• August - Kimarie Chartier [kimariehere]
• September - RGUS [RGUS]
• October - Michael Graeme Coxe [meico]
• November - Mimi Sakamoto [MimiCat]
• December - Laurent Antoine [lemog]

This past year, many of us spent a lot of time running around in our RenderWear and we had a lot of fun doing it! Here's a collage of us in our RenderWear. If you would like to join the fun, upload your RenderWear picture here.



2006 delivered major improvements and advancements in the software tools available to artists. This year brought the release of: Poser 7, Anime Studio 5, Poser Figure Artist, Vue 6, Softimage|XSI 6, Bryce 6, Lightwave 3D v9, 3DS Max 9, Maya 8, Cinema 4D 10, Body Paint 3D Release 3, CorelDRAW X3 Graphics Suite Free Curriculum, along with a host of other updates and acquisitions. e-frontier acquired Amapi PRO from Eovia Europe, DAZ acquired Eovia US, Autodesk acquired Alias, and Disney finally hooked Pixar.

Advancements in digital art education have occurred Animation Mentor Graduated their First Class, Nossi College of Art graduated their first students from the first accredited Bachelor of Graphic Arts program. Online education, DVD and book tutorials have made learning about digital art more easily accessible.

We survived converting the entire site from the old .ez platform to the new php platform. As Tim Choate said, "It was like trying to repair a fully loaded 747 airplane while still in flight." Now, with the new database server installed right before Christmas, it feels like we're flying on a leer jet! For the most part, the speed issues from the previous years have been fixed. We still have some minor adjustments to make, but for the most part, we're cruising along quite well.

In October, we got a new pilot to steer the Renderosity ship. Jenifer Carey was promoted to the position of Vice President of the Renderosity Division of Bondware. She is now heading up the day-to-day operations of the site. Clint Hawkins assumed the role of Renderosity Copyright Agent. Debbie Montique was promoted to serve along side Clint as a second Renderosity Marketplace Manager.

2006 was a great year for making new friends, seeing new artists, and continuing to grow and evolve as a community. We now have more than 475,000 registered members with over 116,000 members receiving our weekly newsletter. We now have our own Renderosity RSS feeds. Thanks to all our friends, partners, sponsors and artists, the Renderosity Annual contests are now well established traditions.

Speaking of contests....HURRY!! The 6th Annual Renderosity Holiday Contest Closes December 31st!! Get your entries in NOW for a chance to win over $40,000 in prizes from: Alienware, Corel, Digital Element, digital-tutors, e-frontier, e-on Software, Future Publishing, FXR Software, Greenworks, Hash, Inc., MAXON, NewTek, NVIDIA, Photoshop Cafe, Reallusion, ResPower, Runtime, Sachform Technology, Softimage, TheBest3D, Tomson Publishing, Toon Boom, Write Brothers, Inc. and ZBrush.

Stop by every week in January as we pay Tribute to the Masters starting with Monet Monday January 1st

Claude Monet

Gazing into the future,
we see that 2007 is going to be a very exciting year
with all of us working together to make Renderosity
THE place for all Creatives to feel at HOME!

We wish you a very Happy New Year!